1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dot pattern control circuit which stores dot pattern lines in latch means serially by pattern line and parallelly outputs the stored pattern lines, and a recorder which uses such a control circuit.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In an apparatus which forms an image by a dot matrix, an input image data and an output image data are usually coincident. For example, in a dot matrix type recorder, a recording head and a record data supplied to the recording head have one-to-one correspondence. For example, where the recording head has a line of eight recording elements such as recording wires or ink jet nozzles which form respective dots, the recording element at one end of the line is assigned to a MSB (most significant bit) and other elements are assigned to other bits in a descending order.
FIG. 1 shows a record data in a recorder and a dot pattern formed thereby. In this apparatus, when a recording data "1" is applied to the recording head, a dot is formed on a record medium as shown by a hatched dot. If a data PD1 "10011100" is supplied, a dot pattern of dots DT1-DT8 is formed. Thus, the bits of the record data D7-D0 correspond to the dots DT1-DT8, respectively.
Depending on a type of a record controlling microprocessor which is connected to the recording head and a controlling gate array or drivers, the bits of the record data may be outputted in a reverse order. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the record data having the same significance as that of FIG. 1 may be inputted in the reverse order with respect to MSB and LSB. If such a record data is recorded in the apparatus of FIG. 1, the bit image of the reverse order is formed as shown on a right hand of FIG. 2. Accordingly, it is necessary to reverse the sequence of the data bits.
The reversal of the bit sequence may be effected in hardware by changing connections of the head or the drivers. However, it requires change of wirings in a printed circuit board and cables and hence it requires a manpower and increases a cost. In order to make the apparatus fit to a plurality of record data formats, it is necessary to reverse the data bit sequence in software. In this case, however, a process time for the reversal is added to a recording time and hence a total process time increases.
The reversal is usually effected in a host unit and the reversed data is transferred to the recorder. The reversal may be effected in a microprocessor of the recorder but it increases a load to the microprocessor and leads to significant reduction of the recording speed. Further, during a record operation, the microprocessor is fully occupied by the record operation and cannot transfer data nor process other jobs. As a result, it is difficult to increase the recording speed.